Here we stand sipping sherry in the parlor of a house on Usher’s Island, Dublin, guests at a holiday dance and dinner. January 1904, with seasonal decorations still in view. Here we stand sipping sherry in the parlor of the American Irish Historical Society mansion on upper Fifth Avenue, guests at that very same holiday dance and dinner. November 2024, with seasonal decorations already on display.
Welcome to the Irish Repertory Theatre’s immersive production of James Joyce’s The Dead, 1904.
A return production, in fact. The Dead, 1904—adapted by Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz from the Joyce short story, directed by Ciarán O’Reilly—originated as a site-specific production at the Historical Society back in 2016. A delightful divertissement, it was remounted in 2017 and 2018. Now, after a hiatus, it seems to have grown even more evocative. Or perhaps our perceptions of ghosts and the dead have changed since 2016. This two-hour trip through time, fueled by piano and violin, cider and stout, is a decided change of pace from a typical evening’s entertainment. Between the talents on display, the turn of the century (1900) ambience, and the hearty meal served communally to the 1904 and 2024 guests, The Dead is a distinctly unique evening’s entertainment.
[Read Elysa Gardner’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
The legendary litterateur did not provide much in the way of plotting. Joyce’s extra-long story captures a moment in time featuring a dozen or so characters struggling with interrelationships. Two spinster aunts and their younger niece give their 1904 Feast of the Epiphany dinner for their assorted music students; that is, the 40-odd 2024 ticket buyers attending the performance. Their favorite nephew, Gabriel Conroy, and his wife, Gretta, are central to the proceedings. Also on hand are friends, musical guests, and an alcoholic black sheep. Undercurrents abound, of Irish patriotism but also of the unseen hold of the dead on the living.
Gretta is played this time around by Kate Baldwin, one of those performers who seem to enhance whatever entertainment in which she is employed (Finian’s Rainbow, Giant, Hello, Dolly!). Baldwin brightens the proceedings, sings according to the relatively modest needs of the role, and somewhat unexpectedly caps the evening with the tale of a long-lost but haunting teenaged romance. Christopher Innvar, recently of To Kill a Mockingbird, plays husband Gabriel, attempting to host the evening for his aunts although on uncertain footing.
Mary Beth Peil, whose career ranges from the 1985 King and I (opposite Yul Brynner, in his final appearance) through The Good Wife, shines as Aunt Julia; central to the affair, but fated soon to be at one with the dead. “I caught that haggard look upon her face for a moment when she was singing Arrayed for the Bridal,” Gabriel tells us in his final speech. If you observe Peil closely, you too are likely to see that shade start to descend. Also on hand are Úna Clancy as the second aunt, Karen Killeen as the piano-playing niece, Heather Bixler as the solo violinist, Terry Donnelly as a neighbor, Jodie Sweeney as the amiable housekeeper, and more.
“We are living in a skeptical and a thought-tormented age,” Gabriel (or is it James Joyce?) tells us. “One by one we are all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.” And so it is we ponder, walking away along windswept Fifth Avenue.
The Dead, 1904 opened November 26, 2024, at the American Irish Historical Society and runs through January 5, 2025. Tickets and information: irishrep.org
